KRIS LLOYD
CHEESEMAKER
ADELAIDE, SA
A pioneering cheesemaker was attracted by the challenge of telling a distinctly Australian story.
Kris Lloyd reckons you can taste the love in cheese. “A cheese that has been really well made, from the heart – they are the ones that are most memorable,” she says.
Lloyd should know, she’s been a cheesemaker for more than two decades and is an international cheese judge. She stumbled into cheesemaking in 1998 when she was working for the family vineyard in McLaren Vale at the cellar door. “I introduced platters for people to enjoy with a glass of wine,” she says. “We made the olives, olive oil, vinegars and verjuice on the estate and I thought it would be nice if we had our own cheese, too. I toyed with the idea of building a cheesery, but none of us had ever made cheese – a minor detail!”
Luck was on her side when Woodside Cheese Wrights, a failing local business, came up for sale, however. “I never intended to be the cheesemaker, but I loved it because it was a challenge. Very little was known about artisanal cheesemaking back then, so the learning curve was steep.”
Most of the literature around the time referred to industrial rather than artisanal cheesemaking and with the internet in its infancy, Lloyd needed to travel overseas to learn.
She also sought advice from Will Studd, a cheese importer, distributor and well-regarded authority. “Will didn’t mince his words: ‘Why do you want to make cheese?’ he demanded. ‘The cheesemakers I know have either gone mad, broke or have died.’”
Rather than deterring her, however, Studd’s words pushed Lloyd to prove both to herself and others that she could do it.
“And I would do it in a style and fashion that would be innovative, creative and tell a distinctly Australian cheese story,” she says.
Being awarded a 2020 Order of Australia honour for her significant service to the artisan cheesemaking industry would seem to prove that this goal was kicked.